UN threatens sanctions on Israel

Just days before the first anniversary of the Israeli Cast Lead military operation which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has urged the Western powers to insist that Israel immediately end its blockade of the Gaza Strip, threatening to enforce economic sanctions.

Falk also urged that the Goldstone Report’s recommendations, which suggest that Israel and Hamas have perpetrated war crimes possibly amounting to crimes against humanity, be fully and swiftly implemented. Falk said that “people having common sense, anywhere in the world, should become conscious of the dramatic situation in Gaza, where the suffering of over 1.5 million people, half of them children, has carried on without any formal objection from governments and the UN”.

In the UN annual report, published last month, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has asked Israel to end the embargo on Gaza and to cease demolitions of Palestinian homes. “In particular, the Israeli government should allow access for humanitarian (and non-humantarian) aid in Gaza, such as to allow the rebuilding of housing and infrastructure that were destroyed,” said the Secretary General.

“So far there are is no tangible evidence of a coordinated diplomatic process to end the blockade and ensure that Israeli officials, who have been suspected of perpetrating war crimes be brought to justice” said Falk, adding that “this constitutes a tragic failure of the international community and the UN”. More

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